Vehicle wheel rim-tire assemblies are radially balanced for preventing vertical bounce of the wheel during various speeds, known as Static Imbalance or Shake. Another form of imbalance is known as Couple Imbalance or Shimmy. Radial balancing of the wheel rim-tire assembly may be accomplished by many well-known methods, such as but not limited to using a spin balance machine also known as a radial balance machine or a dynamic balancing machine, or a static bubble-type wheel balancer. Radial balancing determines the weight and the angular location for placement of the weight on the wheel rim-tire assembly for radially balancing the wheel rim-tire assembly. Wheel weights are typically placed on the inner or outer wheel lips of the wheel rim-tire assembly. Wheel weights may also be placed in an arbitrarily lateral manner on the inside of the rim surface.
It is well known in the art that a variety of types of correction weights are available for placing on the vehicle wheel to correct the measured imbalance. For example, adhesive-backed weights, patch balance weights, clip-on weights, and hammer-on weights are available from a number of different manufacturers.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, it is normally good practice to place balance weights at a particular angular location on both an inner plane 22 and outer plane 26 of a wheel rim-tire assembly 10. This may prevent creating a lateral imbalance; such a lateral imbalance may occur if balance weights are added to only an inner plane 22 or only to an outer plane 26 of the wheel rim-tire assembly 10. A lateral imbalance in the wheel rim-tire assembly can lead to a noticeable shake or shimmy, that sometimes can be extreme and potentially hazardous, and often cannot be alleviated by simply vertically balancing a wheel rim-tire assembly using current dynamic spin balancing or static balancing methods. If the lateral balance plane 14 of a wheel rim-tire assembly 10 is not coincident with the geometric centerline 18 of the wheel rim-tire assembly 10, and then placing balance weights on both an inner plane 22 and outer plane 26 of the wheel rim-tire assembly 10 may still lead to lateral imbalance causing or worsening the shake or shimmy of the wheel rim-tire assembly. Additionally, some currently popular wheel rim styles may lose some or much of their aesthetic appeal if the balance weights are installed in a manner to make the balance weights clearly visible. Additionally, today's automotive manufacturers and wheel manufacturers are equipping newer high-performance models with substantially wider and larger diameter wheels. This causes even greater occurrences of laterally imbalanced wheel rim-tire assemblies. Additionally, with the advent of lost lead wheel weights due to improper adhesion, wheel weight loss in the State of California alone, constitutes over 500,000 pounds annually (circa 2008). Because of this, environmental and health concerns are at an all time high with lead wheel weights being identified as the largest new route of lead releases into the environment (Center for Environmental Health, circa 2008).
Thus, there is a need for a wheel rim that overcomes these and other disadvantages.